Thursday, December 28, 2017

Parshas Vayechi finds Yaakov Avinu at
the end of his life. He begins to set his affairs in order, first by
instructing Yosef how and where to bury him, then blessing his sons, and
finally giving his sons final words of chizuk before he passes away. When Yosef
hears his father has fallen ill, he immediately rushes to his side and brings
his two sons, Menashe and Efraim, along with him. He hoped he would be able to
secure a bracha for his children from his father before he passed away, and he wasn’t
disappointed. However, a careful read of the pesukim seems to indicate that it wasn’t
Menashe and Efraim who received this bracha.

We all know the story of what Yaakov did
before he blessed Yosef’s sons, he crossed over his hands, placing the right
hand on the head of Efraim, the younger son, and his left on the head of
Menashe, the elder son. The bracha itself is also well-known, the pasuk of Hamalach
Hagoel, which every Jewish child knows, said every night before going to
sleep. However, the pasuk in between these two actions is where we will place
our focus. After placing his (crossed over) hands on Menashe and Efraim, the
pasuk says, “וַיְבָ֥רֶךְ אֶת־יוֹסֵ֖ף וַיֹּאמַ֑ר” “And
he (Yaakov) blessed Yosef, and said” (Bereishis 48:15). The pasuk then
continues with the bracha of Hamalach, “הַמַּלְאָךְ֩
הַגֹּאֵ֨ל אֹתִ֜י מִכָּל־רָ֗ע יְבָרֵךְ֘ אֶת־הַנְּעָרִים֒” “May the angel
who redeemed me from all harm bless the youths” (16).

A careful reading of Pasuk 15 shows that Yaakov
was clearly blessing Yosef; however, no blessing appears in the pesukim
directed at him! Pasuk 15 acts as an intro to Pasuk 16 which is clearly
directed at Yosef’s sons (“יְבָרֵךְ֘ אֶת־הַנְּעָרִים֒”), so
what happened to Yaakov’s bracha to Yosef?

The Ramban answers
simply that blessing Yosef’s children was Yaakov’s way of blessing Yosef
directly. These were Yosef’s only children, any and all blessing to Yosef would
be through these two boys. For both Yaakov and Yosef, there was no greater
blessing than having these great concepts be directed at Menashe and Efraim.

The Ohr HaChaim gives an
additional explanation. He explains that the pasuk must be accentuated in a
certain manner to be fully understood. “וַיְבָרֶךְ
אֶת־יוֹסֵף; וַיֹּאמַר”“He blessed Yosef; and he said”; Yaakov
first gave Yosef a blessing, which the Torah doesn’t mention explicitly, and
then turns his attention to Yosef’s sons. (The Seforno explains the pasuk like
this as well.) He gives two possible explanations for what this bracha was. The
first idea is that this was a blessing that Yosef should be continuously blessed.
There’s no specific idea attached to it, and therefore, the pasuk only says
that he blessed Yosef.

The second idea goes a
little deeper. Rashi at the beginning of Parshas Lech Lecha (12:2) explains
that originally, only Hashem was able to bless human beings. Then, He gave this
power over to Avraham who gave it over to Yitzchak who passed it on to Yaakov. Our
pasuk is saying that Yaakov gave over this power to Yosef. When Yaakov ‘blessed’
Yosef, he was literally giving him bracha, he was giving him the power of
giving others bracha. There’s no need for specifics because there’s nothing
specific about it!

Friday, December 22, 2017

In Parshas Vayigash, we observe the
emotional reunion between Yosef and his family. After revealing his identity to
his brothers, rendering them speechless, he encourages them to return as
quickly as possible to Eretz Yisrael and bring his father down to Mitzrayim.
The brothers knew that the shock of finding out that Yosef was alive could kill
Yaakov, so they devised a plan to gently break the news. Yosef knew that his
father might need a bit of convincing that his brothers were telling the truth,
so he made his own arrangements too.

“וַיִּתֵּ֨ן
לָהֶ֥ם יוֹסֵ֛ף עֲגָל֖וֹת עַל־פִּ֣י פַרְעֹ֑ה” “And Yosef gave them
(the brothers) wagons by Paroh’s word”; “וַיָּ֣פָג
לִבּ֔וֹ כִּ֥י לֹא־הֶֽאֱמִ֖ין לָהֶֽם” “but he (Yaakov) had
a turn of heart, for he did not believe them (the brothers)”;“וַיַּרְא֙
אֶת־הָ֣עֲגָל֔וֹת אֲשֶׁר־שָׁלַ֥ח יוֹסֵ֖ף לָשֵׂ֣את אֹת֑וֹ וַתְּחִ֕י ר֖וּחַ
יַֽעֲקֹ֥ב אֲבִיהֶֽם” “And he (Yaakov) saw
the wagons that Yosef had sent to transport him, then the spirit of their
father Yaakov was revived” (Bereishis 45:21; 26-27). It is clear from
Pesukim 26-27 that Yaakov didn’t believe Yosef was alive until he saw these
wagons. Interestingly, in Pasuk 21, it says the wagons were sent by the command
of Paroh, while in Pasuk 27 Yaakov identifies them as a sign from Yosef. What
was the hidden message in these wagons?

Rashi explains that the last halachos
Yaakov taught Yosef before he was sold were about Eglah Arufah, when you
find an unidentified body in the wilderness, which city is responsible for it. Yosef
convinced Paroh to send these wagons which hinted at a message to his father based
on the similarity between the word “eglah” and the Hebrew word for wagon
“agalah”. Yaakov made this connection right away and realized that it
was indeed his son Yosef, still righteous after all these years, sending him
these wagons. This is why the Torah changes from calling them the wagons that
Paroh sent to the wagons that Yosef sent.

The Kli Yakar takes issue with this
explanation of Rashi. Rashi is committed to explaining the pesukim with the
most fundamental understanding; this is clearly not the case with this
explanation. If Yosef only wanted to send a message, why does the pasuk say
they were meant to carry Yaakov down to Mitzrayim? Why would Yosef have sent
multiple wagons, couldn’t he have made his point with one? Therefore, he
understands Rashi that Yaakov saw a different set of halachos hidden in the
wagons.

The message was not the wagons
themselves, but the fact that that Yosef had sent something to bring his father
back down to Mitzrayim. While the halachos of eglah arufah may have been
the final halachos they learned together formally, Chazal teach us the actual
final lesson Yaakov gave Yosef was the mitzvah of providing an escort for
someone. In fact, these halachos are actually part of the mitzvah of eglah
arufah as well. We learn from the pasuk in Parshas Vayeishev (37:13) that
Yaakov escorted Yosef part of the way when he sent him to check on the
brothers. He must have taken this opportunity to give over this mitzvah to
Yosef in the most practical way.

Yosef didn’t need to provide any mode of
transportation for his family; they must have had plenty of their own resources
to provide transport. He specifically provided these wagons as a way of showing
his father that he still remembered what he had been taught. This proved to
Yaakov that Yosef was alive, and furthermore, he was still holding in
everything he had been taught 22 years prior. With this realization, “then
the spirit of their father Yaakov was revived!”

Friday, December 15, 2017

Parshas Mikeitz finds Yosef in the
complete opposite situation from last week’s parsha. After correctly
interpreting the dreams of Paroh, Yosef is raised to second-in-command of Egypt
with total control over all functions of the kingdom. His main assignment was
to prepare for the upcoming seven-year famine which he had predicted. With this
foreknowledge and a plan, Yosef built Egypt into the wealthiest country in the
World; people from every country came to Egypt to purchase food.

Eventually, Yaakov’s sons make their way
down to Egypt. Yosef had prepared for this and had them gathered up and brought
to his palace. He then proceeded to put them through an emotional ordeal by first
accusing them of being spies and forcing them to return to Eretz Yisrael to
bring back Binyamin to prove their innocence. In the meantime, he kept Shimon in
jail as a hostage. What was the reason for this whole charade? Yosef must have
known it would be difficult for his father to let Binyamin, his only remaining
reminder of Rachel, leave his side for an extended period of time. Also, with
all the tortures his brothers put him through when selling him as a slave, did
that mean Yosef allowed to take revenge on them now? Why did he put Yaakov and
his brothers through this torment?

The Ramban explains based on the pasuk, “וַיִּזְכֹּ֣ר
יוֹסֵ֔ף אֵ֚ת הַֽחֲלֹמ֔וֹת אֲשֶׁ֥ר חָלַ֖ם לָהֶ֑ם” “And Yosef
remembered the dreams that he had dreamed about them (his brothers) (Bereishis
42:9). When Yosef saw his brothers bowing down to him, he recalled the dreams
from his youth, the ones they had all interpreted to mean that he would one day
rule over his brothers. However, when the brothers first appeared in front of
him, the dream was not completely fulfilled; according to his dream, all eleven
of his brothers had to bow down to him, so he had to have Binyamin brought down
as well. Once Binyamin arrived and all eleven brothers bowed down to him, Yosef
was ready to move on to the second dream which included his father bowing down
to him, and sent for Yaakov to come down to Egypt. The Ramban acknowledges that
this whole episode must have been torture for the family, but he declares that
it was worth it so that the dreams should be fulfilled.

The question is obvious: was it that
important that the dreams be fulfilled to the exact detail that Yosef had to
torture his brothers, and worse, his father? Chazal teach us that in every
dream, even in the most true ones, there is a part which is not true. Why couldn’t
Yosef chalk up Binyamin not being there to that principle? What is the big deal
about his dreams?

I came across a number of answers, but
one that stood out to me comes from Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky. He explains that it wasn’t
specifically about the dreams that made Yosef go through this entire process.
There was a lesson he had to teach his brothers which even after all the years
of his being gone, they still hadn’t learned. The brothers were wise men who
acted only for the sake of Hashem. When they observed Yosef’s behavior as a
youth, how he preened himself, and entertained (in their minds) delusions of
grandeur, they felt he was threatening the long-term future of the family culture
they had carefully constructed. After all, this was not a group of simple shepherds,
they were to be the founders of the great Nation of Hashem! Therefore, without
even consulting their father, they put together a Beis Din and sentenced him.
This was no kangaroo court, however; they had a fair judgement, and based on
their observations, came out with a fair ruling. However, they were clearly
mistaken; and even all these years later, while they felt bad for their father,
they still felt they had made the correct decision in regards to Yosef.

Yosef wanted to teach his brothers a
lesson that went beyond just him, that even though they were great men, they
could still make a mistake in their initial, simple assumptions. It was
possible to have a fair and impartial judgement, but if the assumption was
incorrect, the whole idea would be incorrect. Until they went through all the
tortures in this week’s parsha, they had never entertained this possibility. It
was so important to show them this, that he made sure every detail of the dream
was exactly the way it had been foreseen, just to make sure this point was
illustrated to the fullest. And his planned worked, as it says in the pasuk, “וַיֹּֽאמְר֞וּ
אִ֣ישׁ אֶל־אָחִ֗יו אֲבָל֘ אֲשֵׁמִ֣ים | אֲנַ֘חְנוּ֘ עַל־אָחִ֒ינוּ֒ אֲשֶׁ֨ר
רָאִ֜ינוּ צָרַ֥ת נַפְשׁ֛וֹ בְּהִתְחַֽנְנ֥וֹ אֵלֵ֖ינוּ וְלֹ֣א שָׁמָ֑עְנוּ
עַל־כֵּן֙ בָּ֣אָה אֵלֵ֔ינוּ הַצָּרָ֖ה הַזֹּֽאת” “And they said to one another, ‘Indeed, we are guilty for
our brother, that we witnessed the distress of his soul when he begged us, and
we did not listen. That is why this trouble has come upon us.” (Ibid 21).

Friday, November 24, 2017

In Parshas Vayeitzei, Yaakov leaves his
home to travel to the house of his uncle, Lavan, intent on building his family.
As a direct result of Lavan’s trickery, he ended up marrying four women from
whom he had the twelve shevatim, while he originally intended to marry only Rachel.
As much as Yaakov prepared for Lavan tricks, he couldn’t do enough.

The story is well-known, about the group
of shepherds Yaakov met upon his arrival. While they waited for enough people
to gather to help remove the large stone placed on top of the well, they were
lounging with their flocks around the well right in the middle of the work day.
Yaakov immediately strikes up a conversation with them, asking all sorts of
questions you would expect a friendly, perhaps naïve, tourist to ask, but not a
man on a mission like Yaakov. He begins with a simple question, “מֵאַ֣יִן
אַתֶּ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ מֵֽחָרָ֖ן אֲנָֽחְנוּ”“…Where are
you from? And they said, ‘We are from Haran.” (Bereishis 29:4). He then
begins to grill them about Lavan. “וַיֹּאמֶר
לָהֶם הַיְדַעְתֶּם אֶת לָבָן בֶּן נָחוֹר …הֲשָׁלוֹם לוֹ” “And he said to
them, ‘Do you know Lavan the son of Nachor?...Are things well with him?” (29:4-5).
While these seem to be innocent questions of a man checking up on his
relatives, the Kli Yakar explains that Yaakov was doing research.

He asks two questions
on the language used in the pasuk. First, why would Yaakov refer to Lavan as
the son of Nachor, his grandfather? He should have referenced his father,
Besuel. Secondly, when asked if they knew Lavan, the shepherds replied, “יָדָֽעְנוּ”, “we know.” Why wouldn’t they have said, “we
know him”?

Once Yaakov heard
these shepherds were from Lavan’s town, he knew they must know of him. The Kli
Yakar explains that Yaakov was trying to find out the character of Lavan.
Nachor was a righteous man while Besuel was a depraved person. Yaakov wanted to
know if Lavan was following the path of his father or his grandfather. Furthermore,
Yaakov was checking to see if there was any question as to Lavan’s lineage. By
referring to Nachor, he was making sure Lavan was completely part of the family
line. The shepherds responded, “We know”, we know he is Nachor’s grandson both
in terms of actions and lineage.

However, Yaakov was
not convinced with one question. He decided to ask another, “Are things well
with him?” Charan was mostly made up of reshaim; Yaakov knew that any tzaddik
living there would be the subject of harassment and ridicule. When the
shepherds replied that everything was well with Lavan, to the extent that he
sent his young daughter out alone in the fields with all those men, Yaakov knew
he couldn’t possibly be a tzaddik.

This was just one of
the preparations Yaakov made to protect himself from Lavan’s trickery and lies.
While he wasn’t able to defend himself from every shtick Lavan tried to pull,
ultimately he was successful in the most important aspect. Even though he spent
20 years in Lavan’s house, grew a large family and became a wealthy man, he and
his family were not affected by the bad influence of Lavan in the slightest. He
remained totally connected to Hashem until the day he left. In our galus we
face many challenges from our surroundings. We must recognize what is right and
proper and keep our course in that direction, regardless of the niceties that
tempt us on the road.

Shabbat Shalom!

The Dvar Torah is now available on parshasheets.com! Check out the site for links to Divrei Torah in both Hebrew and English, written by people around the world.

Friday, November 17, 2017

Parshas Toldos begins the next
generation of the Jewish People with the story of the life of Yitzchak. If you
stop to think about it, this parsha stands out among the others in Sefer
Bereishis as the only parsha to discuss the details of Yitzchak’s life. While
Avraham’s life was discussed over the previous 3 parshiyos and Yaakov’s takes
us to the end of the Sefer, Yitzchak’s life was only deemed necessary to
discuss for one parsha. Why is this? The whole purpose of writing the details
of the lives of our Avos in the Torah is to teach us life lessons. Were there
not enough lessons to be learned from the life of Yitzchak? Was he, perhaps,
less important than Avraham and Yaakov? G-d forbid!

Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetzky explains that
like we said earlier, the purpose of telling us the story of the Avos is to
teach us specific life lessons, of which each of the Avos taught a different one.
However, the amount of attention each one gets in the Torah directly correlates
to the influence they had upon the world. Why was Yitzchak’s lesson not as influential
as the others?

Let’s examine the lessons of each one of
the Avos. Avraham’s main attribute was Chessed. The simple understanding of his
mission is he would provide for people and when they wanted to thank him, he
would teach them to thank Hashem instead. However, it goes deeper than that.
Avraham recognized that everything he had was an act of kindness on the part of
Hashem. When Avraham did Chessed, he did it in order to model his actions after
those of the Creator. So when his guests would thank him for his kindness, he
would direct their thanks heavenward; “You think I’m giving you all this? I’ve
been blessed with kindness as well! All this comes from Hashem, He’s the one
you should thank. I’m just passing His gifts along to you!” A life based on
kindness and mercy is an attractive one to be a part of and drew many people
closer to Hashem.

Yaakov’s main characteristic was his pursuit
of Truth. His pursued truth by learning Torah, the ultimate guide to the
universe, written and given to us by Hashem Himself. By plumbing the depths of the
Torah, Yaakov was able to discern the real truths of the universe. He spent his
life representing honesty and teaching Torah to anyone who would listen. It was
through him that the young nation became connected to the Torah and formulated
a relationship with Hashem. While it may not be as attractive as a warm
inviting home of kindness, a knowledge of truth and is attractive as well.
Therefore, Yaakov drew many people to Hashem as well.

Yitzchak’s main characteristic was his
diligence in his service to Hashem, a trait that was built on his strong sense
of Din and Mishpat, which Reb Yaakov translates in this context to mean that a
person must live his entire life strictly within the guidelines that Hashem has
set up, without compromise. This is a difficult standard to hold oneself to,
complete commitment without wavering at all! The only person to whom this is an
expected way of life is one to whom this lifestyle is so precious, that his
relationship and commitment to Hashem is so important, and that he is ultimately
ready to give up his life for it.

This was Yitzchak’s relationship with Hashem
and the Torah. His view on life was demanding but with the ultimate commitment.
One of the best things in life is loving something or someone enough that you
would die for it, which Yitzchak showed he was ready to do without hesitation
when he volunteered to become the sacrifice Hashem needed by Akeidas Yitzchak. His
life may have been exact, but Yitzchak wasn’t an unhappy person. He didn’t live
his life with a sense of foreboding or fear of overstepping the lines, he lived
with a happiness of being able to serve his Creator to the max. And because it
was so important to him, he demanded of himself complete commitment to his lifestyle.

Yitzchak taught us the idea of Mesiras
Nefesh, dying for a cause, specifically the cause of Hashem. Sadly, Jews have
had to follow this practice too many times throughout history, but the idea of
dying for a cause has been and will always be admired. This was Yitzchak’s
contribution to the Jewish People. However, this lifestyle and level of
commitment is not one for everyone, and Yitzchak did not attract nearly as many
followers to Hashem as Avraham and Yaakov.

The amount of words spent on each of the
Avos is in correlation to how many people they attracted to the religion at
their specific time since the number of stories that they took part in
ultimately comes down to how many people they interacted with and affected, of
which Yitzchak had the least. In the long run, however, the amount written
about each one in the Torah is insignificant; the important part is what they contributed
to us, the Jewish People, their children. The lessons they taught us about how
to live our lives as Ovdei Hashem. While in the times of the Torah Yitzchak may
not have had many followers, his contributions towards the future nation were
just as significant as his father’s and son’s. In fact, while Chessed teaches
us how to be like Hashem and Torah teaches us to understand Hashem, the
self-sacrifice and Mesiras Nefesh of Yitzchak is what ultimately seals our
relationship with Hashem.

Friday, November 10, 2017

This week’s parsha begins with tragedy
as the Torah tells us of the death of Sarah Imeinu. The pasuk tells us that she
was 127 years old when she died, but the real lesson is learned from the how
her age is written. “וַיִּֽהְיוּ֙ חַיֵּ֣י שָׂרָ֔ה מֵאָ֥ה
שָׁנָ֛ה וְעֶשְׂרִ֥ים שָׁנָ֖ה וְשֶׁ֣בַע שָׁנִ֑ים שְׁנֵ֖י חַיֵּ֥י שָׂרָֽה” “And
the life of Sarah was one hundred years and twenty years and seven years; the
years of the life of Sarah.” (Bereishis 23:1). Why did the pasuk write out
each set of years separately?

The classic
explanation comes, as usual, from Rashi. He explains that each set of years is
meant to make a point. First, when she was one hundred, she was like a twenty
year old in terms of sin. Until the age of twenty, a person is not liable for
punishment from Heaven for any sins they may do; even at the age of 100, Sarah
had not sinned in any way to require punishment from Heaven. Secondly, when she
was 20, she still had the pure beauty that is attributed to a little girl; in
this example, a seven year old. The pasuk breaks down each level separately to accentuate
these ideas.

Rav Samson Rafael
Hirsch asks another question on this pasuk, how come the pasuk needed to write “the
years of the life of Sarah” at the end? Isn’t it obvious that’s what we’re discussing?
In fact, that’s the entire pasuk! To explain, he expands on this medrash.

The three ages of 100,
20, and 7 that are broken down in the pasuk, are representative of the three
stages of a person’s life: youth, adulthood, and old age. Chazal teach us that
the best way for a person to live their life is to act their age in each one of
these stages. What is meant by this?

As a person lives and
goes through these life stages, the lessons learned from each stage should be
internalized and used to be successful in the next stage. So theoretically, the
mistakes and lessons a person learns as a child should affect how he lives as
an adult, and the happenings of an adult should teach and influence him how to
live his life as an older person. What should end up happening is that the
older person has the most life experience from which to draw wisdom and insight
into events in the world, while in turn the adult has more wisdom and
experience than the youth. When life follows this pattern, with a person accepting
and internalizing past experiences and building upon them in the next stage of
life, Chazal say this is a true life.

This brings us back to
the medrash and the breakdown of Sarah’s life. To read the medrash simply sounds
ridiculous. The lack of sin on the part of the 20 year old is due to what is
called the “innocence”, read- naiveté, of the youth. You can’t hold an unknowledgeable
person responsible for their actions! And there’s no pride in being compared to
that kind of innocence. (But people actually think there is!) In reality, the true
conqueror of sin is the one who has been faced with the challenges of life, the
attraction to depravity, the desires for shallowness, slowly building up experience
and knowledge throughout their adult life until they come out shining on the
other side. The real comparison you want drawn is the 20 year old should be
clean from sin like the 100 year old, the one who has faced those challenges
and come out on top!

The same is true when
it comes to beauty. As an innocent, ignorant child, it is easy to maintain the
pure, clear beauty of youth. But the one who has faced peer-pressure, possibly derision,
and the expectations of the outside world, yet still maintained that pure
beauty, both inner and outer, upon reaching adulthood, that is someone to be
admired. This is a stage that is meant for those in the prime of life when the
thoughts of others are stronger on the consciousness and the physical body is
in peak condition. And it is one that can be conquered by them. This person is to
go through these challenges, come out shining on the other side and is to be
compared to a young child who knows nothing of such things!? It’s insulting.

Sarah was someone who
embodied this “true life”, taking the lessons of her youthful beauty to service
her as an adult, and the lessons on avoiding sin into her later years. This is
why the pasuk breaks down her age into these three stages, represented by the
numbers 100, 20, and seven. So while these 127 were indeed “the years of the life
of Sarah”, they were also “the life of Sarah”; they tell the story of her
journey through the stages of life until she left this world, fully
accomplished, having perfectly completed the sum of the purpose of her entire
life.

May this understanding
of our amazing ancestor be an inspiration to us all, and teach us how we should
view each portion of our lives. Any challenges we face are only there to make
us stronger, and our lives are only complete when we can use everything we have
learned, our lives can only then be called “truly lived”, when we have reached the
final stage.